Modellings of Infectious Diseases and Cancers under Wars and Pollution Impacts in Iraq with Reference to a Novel Mathematical Model and Literature Review

Microbial pathogens include bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites and together account for a significant percentage of acute and chronic human diseases. In addition to understanding the mechanisms by which various pathogens cause human disease, research in microbial pathogenesis also addresses mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance and the development of new antimicrobial agents and vaccines. Answering fundamental questions regarding host-microbe interactions requires an interdisciplinary approach, including microbiology, genomics, informatics, molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry, immunology, epidemiology, environment and interaction between host and microbe. Studies investigating the direct effects of pollutants on respiratory tract infections are very vast, but those interested in the role of a pre-existing disease and effects of the exposure on the response to secondary stresses are few. In an experimental study at concentrations of air pollutants found in urban environments, frank toxicological responses are rarely observed, however, exposure to secondary stress like the respiratory challenge with infectious bacteria can exacerbate the response of the experimental host. The models like experimental, mechanical, and mathematical are the most abstract, but they allow analysis and logical proofs in a way that other approaches do not permit. The present review is mostly concerned with these model representations particularly with a novel mathematical model explaining the interaction between pathogen and immunity including the equivalence point.

Review and Analysis: United States Secret Wars in Cambodia: Long-Term Impacts and Consequences

The People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) decided to use conventional warfare to unify Vietnam. The United States military operation against the Ho Chi Minh Trail traffic began in 1959. The (PAVN) connected a series of old trails leading from North Vietnam to South Vietnam via Laos and Cambodia. In the 1960s the network of trails was expanded. Trail traffic was interdicted by repeated CIA (Air America) and US Air Force (Operation Ranch Hand) tactical herbicide spraying and bombing missions. During the late 1960s, the Khmer Rouge Army slowly grew in eastern Cambodia during a time when America was spraying and bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail. On February 22, 1969, the PAVN launched a new offensive against American forces in South Vietnam from their sanctuaries in Cambodia. President Richard Nixon and Dr. Henry Kissinger, decided to spray and bomb Cambodia, a neutral country, to eliminate the PAVN sanctuary base camps. The damage and loss of life as a result of U.S. air campaign resulted in the insurgency (Khmer Rouge) being able to recruit civilian members. This created a dual effect of strengthening the popularity of the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, enabling him to overthrow the Khmer Republic in 1975. The primary objectives of this study are to determine the political impacts and consequences of: 1) the 1959 United States secret war on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia and 2) the 1969 President Nixon’s decision to destroy the PAVN bases hidden in the Cambodian jungles. These United States secret wars in Cambodia had long-lasting effects on Cambodian political, social, and economic stability.

品味《Summer Wars》的夏日温馨——浅析《Summer Wars》中的人物形象及其动人情感

日本动画《Summer Wars》采取的是人们司空见惯的小人物拯救世界的题材,却铸就了一部直抵观众灵魂的巨作。究其原因在于导演细田守温情而细腻的表达手法,让片中的每一个角色性格都十分鲜活,栩栩如生,跃然银幕,让所有观众都感同身受,爱不释手。

Secret Wars

Hip-hop一族们已经经历多年的MC之战了，那么为什么插画不能给大家提供一个相似的景观呢？Tom Dennis审视Secret Wars中的绘画元素……

Settlement of Internal Cutthroat Competition Amid IT Group Companies:Away from “Prisoners’ Dilemma” of Price Wars

Cutthroat competition amid subsidiary companies of IT Group Company due to immanent characteristics of IT industry and grouping management mechanism infringes upon the collective profits. Two ways to avoid cutthroat competition of group company with game theory are studied： the assessment objective made by IT group company for subsidiary companies focuses on profits not revenue; the supervisory department of group company shall intensify law enforcement strength and give severe punishment against illegal depreciation of the subsidiary company.

Smartphone Wars

SMARTPHONE companies are in battle in China, the world＇s largest smartphone market. While not yet the largest in terms of profit, it surpassed the United States in 2011 to register the world＇s highest smartphone sales volume, according to Strategy Analytics, an international market research and consulting firm. In this fiercely competitive environment,

THE IVORY WARS

象牙,珍贵一如白金,价逾拱璧;可是,富有象牙的纳米比亚诸国却深受其苦。为了保护濒临灭绝的大象,国际公约规定禁止偷猎大象,买卖象牙。于是,蒙此荣幸的象群肆意横行,践踏庄稼,殃及无辜。象牙的财富似近在眼前却又遥不可及,人民遭其祸害却无处伸冤。那么,这场象牙之战究竟何去何从呢?

Africa and the World Wars

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the First World War and the 75th anniversary of the Second World War. Mauya Omauya a media editor and lecturer in international affairs at Kenya＇s Moi University, believes that from slavery to colonialism and neocolonialism, Africa has been a victim of wars started far from its shores. His views follow：

Gastrointestinal problems in modern wars: clinical features and possible mechanisms

Gastrointestinal problems are common during wars, and they have exerted significant adverse effects on the health of service members involved in warfare. The spectrum of digestive diseases has varied during wars of different eras. At the end of the 20 th century, new frontiers of military medical research emerged due to the occurrence of high-tech wars such as the Gulf War and the Kosovo War, in which ground combat was no longer the primary method of field operations. The risk to the military personnel who face trauma has been greatly reduced, but disease and non-battle injuries(DNBIs) such as neuropsychological disorders and digestive diseases seemed to be increased. Data revealed that gastrointestinal symptoms such as constipation, diarrhea, dyspepsia, and noncardiac chest pain are common among military personnel during modern wars. In addition, a large number of deployed soldiers and veterans who participated in recent wars presented with chronic gastrointestinal complaints, which fulfilled with the Rome III criteria for functional gastrointestinal disorders(FGIDs). It was also noted that many veterans who returned from the Gulf War suffered not only from chronic digestive symptoms but also from neuropsychological dysfunction; however, they also showed symptoms of other systems. Presently, this broad range of unexplained symptoms is known as "Gulf War syndrome". The mechanism that underlies Gulf War syndrome remains unclear, but many factors have been associated with this syndrome such as war trauma, stress, infections, immune dysfunction, radiological factors, anthrax vaccination and so on. Some have questioned if the diagnosis of FGIDs can be reached given the complexity of the military situation. As a result, further studies are needed to elucidate the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal disease among military personnel.

Economic and Political Aspects of Wars and Armed Conflicts

War,as a social phenomenon,is studied unofficially by most disciplines of social sciences.This is due to the nature of the war itself,which is an extremely interdisciplinary phenomenon.In common thought,war is associated exclusively with the science of history,but in its essence,this phenomenon also includes economics and political sciences.War undeniably affects the political and economic processes in the state,both in a negative and positive way.Often,also the strategies of the state’s political activities and plans for economic development are conditioned by the occurrence of wars and armed conflicts.

The relationship between interannual dry/wet changes and nomadic wars in the Hexi Corridor region of China during the period 241–1912 A.D.

The link between climate and war has long been a topic of great scientific and social interest.In this study,we investigate the influence of climate on warfare in China’s Hexi Corridor region since 241 A.D.Using the superposed epoch analysis of tree-ring data and historical war data,we observe a notable correlation between interannual dry-wet variations and wars instigated by nomadic groups in the Hexi Corridor.However,this relationship is dynamic and influenced by the region’s relative unity.During periods in which the Hexi Corridor was ruled by multiple regimes,wars tended to follow dry climatic conditions,which may be due to the fact that unusual drought during these periods likely heightened competition for resources and land.Conversely,during times of regional unity,wars were more likely to occur when climatic conditions were wet because the expansion of rangelands and the accumulation of resources helped fuel the nomads’outward conquest.These findings underscore the complexity of the relationship between war and climate change.To gain a more comprehensive understanding of this relationship,continuous,high-resolution historical temperature and humidity datasets with broader and more uniform coverage are needed across multiple regions.In addition,collecting and examining disaggregated historical war data for regions with distinct characteristics is essential.

Quantitative analysis of the impact of droughts and floods on internal wars in China over the last 500 years

Although many large-N quantitative studies have evidenced the adverse effects of climatic extremes on social stability in China during the historical period, most of them rely on temperature and precipitation as major explanatory variables, while the influence of floods and droughts on social crises is rarely measured. Furthermore, a comparison of the climate-society nexus among different geographic regions and at different temporal scales is missing in those studies. To address this knowledge gap,this study examines quantitatively the influence of floods and droughts on internal wars in three agro-ecological(rice, wheat,and pastoral) regions in China in AD1470–1911. Poisson regression and wavelet transform coherence analyses are applied to allow for the non-linear and non-stationary nature of the climate-war nexus. Results show that floods and droughts are significant in driving internal wars in historical China, but are characterized by strong regional variation. In the rice region, floods trigger internal wars at the inter-annual and multi-decadal time scales. In the wheat region, both floods and droughts cause internal wars at the inter-annual and multi-decadal time scales. In the pastoral region, internal wars are associated with floods only at the multi-decadal time scale. In addition, the multi-decadal coherence between hydro-climatic extremes and internal wars in all three of the agro-ecological regions is only significant in periods in which population density is increasing or the upper limit of regional carrying capacity is being reached. The above results imply that the climate-war nexus is mediated by regional geographic factors such as physical environmental setting and population pressure. Hence, we encourage researchers who study the historical human-climate relationship to boil down data according to geographic regions in the course of statistical analysis and to examine each region individually in follow-up studies.

Mental Health Consequences among Sudanese Due to the Armed Conflicts and Civil Unrest of 2023: One Year Later

Aim: To investigate depression, anxiety, PTSD, and insomnia levels among Sudanese citizens after a year has passed since the start of Armed Forces conflict in Sudan. Methods: An online survey was distributed. It is composed of five parts, covering the following areas: 1) sociodemographic data;2) depression assessment;3) generalized anxiety disorder assessment;4) post-traumatic stress disorder assessment;and 5) insomnia assessment. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 27 was used for data analysis;frequency and percentage were used to describe the qualitative variables. Spearman’s correlation analysis and Chi-square test were used for correlation and association analysis;a P-value equal to or less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The study included 283 participants, primarily female (76.0%), with a mean age of 35.26 ± 6.96 years. The majority of participants were married (50.5%) and had a university level of education (50.2%). At the start of the war, 70.3% of participants were inside the war zones, and at the time of data collection, 73.5% were outside Sudan. The length of stay in the war zone ranged from 1 to 300 days, with a mean of 48.59 ± 70.284 days. Additionally, 63.3% of participants stated that they did not receive any form of mental health intervention, and the remaining did not provide an answer. There was a high prevalence of moderate-severe depression (50.5%), moderate anxiety (35.3%), PTSD (56.5%), and sub-threshold insomnia (53.4%) among the participants. Correlation analyses revealed associations between demographic factors such as sex, age, marital status, and education and mental health issues. Notably, female participants showed a higher prevalence of PTSD (53.0%) compared to male participants (67.6%). Conclusions: There is a substantial impact of war-related trauma on mental health, revealing a high prevalence of moderate-severe depression, moderate anxiety, PTSD, and sub-threshold insomnia among the participants. This emphasizes the importance of tailored interventions and support systems to address the unique needs of individuals affected by war trauma.

PACT/WAR工艺在腈纶污水处理工程中的应用

丙烯腈/腈纶污水污染物浓度高,含难生化处理的低聚物,处理难度大,成为困扰企业污水达标排放的难题。介绍了国内企业腈纶污水处理的工程实践及实验研究,采用PACT/WAR工艺处理腈纶污水的工程实例。工程运行表明:该工艺处理包括丙烯腈/腈纶污水在内的炼油、化工污水,处理效果良好,能够达到一级直排标准。针对运行中出现的问题,提出相应的解决方案及优化建议。

An Analysis of Specific Categories of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities for Children of Participants of the Air Force Health Study

Background: The Air Force Health Study collected reproductive outcomes for live-born children of male Air Force veterans of the Vietnam War. Methods: Dioxin values for participants were obtained from blood samples. Analyses were conducted of occurrence of 16 specific categories of birth defects and developmental disabilities. Children were categorized as conceived before and after the start of participants’ Vietnam War service. Children conceived before the start of Vietnam War service were treated as being conceived when their fathers had unquantifiable dioxin values. Children conceived after the start of Vietnam War service for participants with missing dioxin values were excluded from primary analyses, but were used to assess the impact of their exclusion on conclusions. Correlation between values for specific categories for multiple children fathered by the same participant was accounted for. The dose-response relationship was treated as a step function increasing for dioxin values larger than adaptively identified individual thresholds changing with the specific category. Results: For 15 of 16 specific categories, the probability of occurrence increased substantially for a sufficiently high dioxin level above identified thresholds. Exclusion of children due to missing dioxin likely did not affect these results. Conclusions: Results supported the conclusion of substantial adverse effects on a wide variety of specific categories of birth defects and developmental disabilities due to sufficiently high exposures to dioxin, a toxic contaminant of Agent Orange used for herbicide spraying in the Vietnam War. Results may hold more generally, but might also have been affected by a variety of limitations.

The Need for International Cooperation between Israel and Other Middle East Nations to Protect the Jordan River Landscape

The Jordan River, also referred to as Nahr Al Sharieat in Arabic, is a long river in the Middle East that flows from north to south through the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. The Jordan River is bordered by the Golan Heights and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the east and by Israel and the Palestinian West Bank (Judea and Samaria) in the west. Soil tunnels, including those in the Jordan River watershed and on the Israel, Syria, and Lebanon borders, have a long history of use for warfare, as invasion pathways, smuggling, and storage of rockets, missiles and ordnance and are causes of serious political tension between the countries. Soil tunnel construction and destruction often has adverse environmental and human health impacts in the Jordan River landscape. Due to agricultural wastes, the discharge of untreated sewage, and diversion of saline springs into the river water there has been serious deterioration in the water quality in the lower courses of the Jordan River. The primary objective of this research is to encourage the development of a multi-country clean-up, mitigation, and protection plan for the Jordan River.

Realism, Normativity and Professor Mearsheimer

International relations or politics are a dynamic discipline within politics. It concentrates upon the understanding or explanation of conflict and power between nations or countries. It is of course highly relevant today with much warfare or threats thereof. One central theory is the so-called realism or neorealism. Its foremost representative today is Professor Mearsheimer. Professor John Mearsheimer has put several of his well-known lectures on YouTube. In these he spells out how he looks upon international politics today through a neorealist approach. Very much worth listening to, we must though question consistency in his message.

Wars as Dividing Significance of the Lines？ Rethinking the Sino-Japanese War in Twentieth Century China

Historical periodization frequently takes wars as turning points--as ruptures that signify the end or beginning of an era. At the same time, front lines have often been taken as boundaries that contain the activities of one side or the other. Thus, discontinuity and disjuncture rather than continuity and fluidity have o-en been the points of emphasis among historians who have taken war events as turning points, or who have seen lines of combat as impermeable. A new focus on the Sino-Japanese War period has begun to reveal ways in which that moment served not as an interruption but as a part of longer term processes of change and development that characterized China＇s mid-twentieth century. It also permits us to gain a deeper understanding of the fluidity of human movement and socio-economic interaction that frequently boundaries and to think about similarities various Chinese spaces. The aim of this paper crossed both political and military linkages, and differences between is to consider ways in which the new generation of scholarship on the Sino-Japanese War period offers new ways of thinking about continuity, change, similarity and difference across both temporal and physical boundaries that have served as the parameters for much of the earlier scholarship on the period. To this end, the paper examines recent literature on the Sino-Japanese War period, as well as literature that crosses that period, to examine ways in which this historiography has challenged conventional periodizations and political and geographical delineations

Enduring association between irritable bowel syndrome and war trauma during the Nicaragua civil war period:A population-based study

BACKGROUND Psychosocial and physical trauma are known risk factors for irritable bowel syndrome(IBS),including in war veterans,whereas war exposure in civilians is unclear.Nicaragua experienced two wars,1970-1990:The Sandinistas Revolution(1970s)and The Contra War(1980s).Our aim was to investigate the role of exposure to war trauma in the subsequent development of IBS in the context of an established health surveillance system(11000 households).AIM To investigate in a civilian population the relationship between exposure to war trauma and events and the subsequent development of IBS in the context of an established public health and demographic surveillance system in western Nicaragua.METHODS We conducted a nested population-based,cross-sectional study focused on functional gastrointestinal disorders based on Rome II criteria.1617 adults were randomly selected.The Spanish Rome II Modular Questionnaire and Harvard Trauma Questionnaire were validated in Nicaragua.War exposure was assessed with 10 measures of direct and indirect war trauma and post-war effects.Multiple exposures were defined by≥3 measures.RESULTS The prevalence of IBS was 15.2%[Female(F)17.1%,Male(M)12.0%],war exposure 19.3%(F 9.3%,M 36.7%),and post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD)5.6%(F 6.4%,M 4.3%).Significant associations with IBS in the civilian population were observed(adjusted by gender,age,socioeconomic status,education):physical and psychological abuse[adjusted odds ratio(aOR):2.25;95%confidence interval:1.1-4.5],witnessed execution(aOR:2.4;1.1-5.2),family member death(aOR:2.2;1.2-4.2),and multiple exposures(aOR:2.7;1.4-5.1).PTSD was independently associated with IBS(aOR:2.6;1.2-5.7).CONCLUSION An enduring association was observed in the Nicaragua civilian population between specific civil war-related events and subsequent IBS.Civilian populations in regions with extended armed conflict may warrant provider education and targeted interventions for patients.

Masquelet technique in military practice:specificities and future directions for combat-related bone defect reconstruction

Because of its simplicity,reliability,and replicability,the Masquelet induced membrane technique(IMT)has become one of the preferred methods for critical bone defect reconstruction in extremities.Although it is now used worldwide,few studies have been published about IMT in military practice.Bone reconstruction is particularly challenging in this context of care due to extensive soft-tissue injury,early wound infection,and even delayed management in austere conditions.Based on our clinical expertise,recent research,and a literature analysis,this narrative review provides an overview of the IMT application to combat-related bone defects.It presents technical specificities and future developments aiming to optimize IMT outcomes,including for the management of massive multi-tissue defects or bone reconstruction performed in the field with limited resources.